Judge to Soldiers: Drop Dead--Literally

Federal Judge Royce C. Lamberth made it official--the federal government has the right to enforce stop-loss orders if it feels that additional fodder is needed. Well, a federal judgeship is a lifetime appointment, so maybe Lamberth thinks he understands...

After all, the poor judge has to make do with an annual salary of not even $150,000 --it's a mere $145,100. And I'll bet that once a week or so there's some son-of-a-bitch in his CLEARLY RESERVED parking space. I tell you, until you've suffered like a federal magistrate, you just can't complain about anything--like, say, an I.E.D.

Staying on the same topic, more or less, Maximum Leader (until 2009) Bush thinks that health care for veterans is a privilege, not a right--hence, he proposes doubling the co-pay for veteran drug coverage AND instituting a $250 fee for even using government health services...thank you for your sacrifice...Dick Cheney announces this is "the tightest budget he's submitted"--to which I'll note that it's awfully easy to call it a "tight" budget when you screw the veterans and take the costs of war off book.

On the other hand, Bush now admits his "drug benefit" for senior citizens will cost about $720 BILLION dollars, as opposed to the already outrageous $400 billion it was supposed to be...so, screw the veterans, take the costs of war off book (and act like the financing will be accomplished by, oh, I don't know, magic, I guess), then announce a $720 billion dollar...well, let's not dink around, a $720 billion dollar SUBSIDY to drug companies. Conservative? You decide...

Oh, and to round the late morning/early afternoon off, let's tip our hats to Kevin Benderman, who's decided he's had enough killing to last a lifetime. Sergeant Benderman determined one combat tour was enough, and he declined to rejoin the 3rd ID for another deadly game of lottery in Iraq. His request for conscientious objector status is under review, and he is facing charges of desertion:

"War is the greatest form of wrong," Benderman wrote in his seven-page conscientious objector application. "I believe that my moral obligation to humanity is to not allow myself to be a part of this destruction."

In the six months he spent in combat in Iraq in 2003, Benderman said, he was badly shaken by what he witnessed. He saw a young Iraqi girl with her arm horribly burned and blackened, standing helplessly on a roadside as Benderman's convoy rushed past. He saw dogs feasting on civilian corpses that had been dumped into pits. He saw young U.S. soldiers treat war like a video game, he said, with few qualms about killing or the effects of the invasion on ordinary Iraqis.

Benderman said he begged an officer to stop and help the girl, but was told that the unit couldn't spare its limited medical supplies. "I had to look at that little girl, look into her eyes, and in her eyes I saw the TRUTH. I cannot kill," Benderman wrote in his application.

I'm amazed that this country would even THINK about trying Sgt. Benderman for desertion while at the same time electing Bush president in 2004. For the record, I think the sergeant would make a better commander in chief than Dubya...

(off topic, but: got back to BR not all that late, but I might have a mild case of whatever's affecting Oyster. If I'm a little slow to write today, that's the reason).